


An Unexpected Kitten

by jellyfishbait



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, Insomniac Lance (Voltron), M/M, hoodies are crucial
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-16
Updated: 2018-11-16
Packaged: 2019-08-24 10:17:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16638044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jellyfishbait/pseuds/jellyfishbait
Summary: All he wanted was some cereal and then he lost track of time and then he needed to get back to the dorms and then wait, is that a cat?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [goldkirk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldkirk/gifts).



> THIS WAS HALF WAY WRITTEN IN THE HOURS BETWEEN 1 AND 3 AM BECAUSE MY FRIEND WENT ON A RANT ABOUT KITTENS AND HOODIES ON HER SNAP STORY AND ITS SPAWNED AN IDEA TOO FLUFFY TO LEAVE UNWRITTEN

Lance stared at the cereal in front of him, not really seeing any of the brands or the prices. Sleep had once again decided to elude him and after several hours of staring at the constellations and photographs stretched across his corner of the room, Lance had decided to go for a late night snack run.

 

A sigh dropped from Lance as he rocked forward, grabbing a box. Making to leave towards checkout, Lance almost collides with the same person who had been making his insomnia worse recently.

 

“Would you watch where you’re going?” exclaimed the darker boy, a scowl crossing his face. Lance took a step back, brain lagging a step behind.

 

“Sorry dude. It’s, what, close to midnight at this point?” Lance shrugged and would’ve left it at that except for one thing which caught his eye.

 

“Is that a kitten?” Keith shifted a step back, hair brushing his face as he tried to get the small kitten tucked back inside the pocket of his hoodie. Maybe a size too big, the pocket of the black hoodie was fully large enough to hold the blue ball of fluff.

 

An added scar to his hand later, Keith gave up on fitting the kitten back inside the pocket of his hoodie with an exasperated sigh at the simply too adorable furball. Noticing the continued stare of his project partner, Keith took a moment to give up on any hope of properly explain why there was an actual _cat_ in his pocket.

 

“It’s, it’s actually a stray that was near my apartment building and it was either this or,” Keith glanced out the front of the small grocery store. The wind had picked up and it was unclear whether it was rain, sleet, or snow beginning to soak through the sky.

 

Keith prepared himself to be told a million reasons why it was bad to have taken a stray, and even worse to let it sit in his pocket. Without realizing it, Keith began to curl in on himself, hunching down as if he was already outside in the harsh weather.

 

“Do they have a name?”

 

Keith gaped and startled for a second, not expecting to be met with - whatever this question was. Yet before he could properly answer the question, a crackling noise came over the store intercom.

 

“The store will be closing in 10 minutes, please make your way to checkout. Thank you.”

 

Both young adults were abruptly made aware that they had been standing in the cereal aisle for 15 minutes awkwardly staring at eachother while trying to discuss an unexpected kitten. Lance’s brain caught up with him a second later however, as confusion and distraught crossed his face.

“Closing in ten minutes? But that would mean its almost 2 am. It can’t be past one, can it?”

 

“Uh,” pausing to wrestle his phone out of his back pocket, Keith produces a flickering screen clearly stating the time as 2:13 am.

 

Lance sways from the sudden realization that rocks through him. The buses have stopped. He can’t get back. His thoughts start to race as Lance tries to think of a way to get back to the dorms but his insomnia wins another point against him.

 

“Hey, are you ok?”

 

Black hair interrupts Lance’s thoughts as they try to drive him over the edge.

 

“The buses have stopped so I’m essentially stranded here and I can’t get back to the dorms and I think my phones dead. Yea I’m _fine_.” Lance runs a hand through his hair, heaving a sigh of frustration at himself.

 

Keith would love nothing more than to just leave and not have to deal with Lance, but he can already here Shiro’s indignation at him for just leaving a _classmate._ With a subtler sigh of his own, Keith steals the basket from Lance’s hand.

 

Before Lance can utter a cry against it, he is holding a kitten in his hands and is being dragged over to the self service. Keith continues to ignore the murmurs of protest from Lance but Lance can’t actually do something unless he puts down the kitten.

 

Grabbing the bag, containing one box of cereal and several cans of cat food, Keith walks towards the dark red Subaru parked right by the front of the store.

 

Digging out his keys, Keith slings the food in the back seat.

 

“Lance.”

 

“Uh.... what?”

 

“Get in dude.”

 

Lance’s brain takes a solid minute to process what this random classmate with a fucking _kitten_ had said.

 

“No, dude, I can just walk back. It’s fine, really.”

 

The glare sent his way by Keith leaves no room for him to continue the argument. With a sigh, Lance gets in the passenger seat, settling the kitten in his lap after buckling up.

 

Stripped covers of songs fill the space as Keith starts driving towards the school. The sleep that had been eluding Lance finally caught up and before he knew it he was asleep.

 

Cuddling a kitten that wasn’t his, in the car of a random classmate who had done nothing but beat him in grades for the past year.

 

Keith was very glad that his apartment was ground floor as he supported the weight of the still mainly asleep Lance. Sitting him down in the small kitchen, Keith quickly pulled the sofa out into a bed, grabbing the comforter and pillow stashed beneath it and slapping them on top. Lance was still _somehow_ cuddling with the damn kitten as he nearly face planted onto the now bed.

 

Shaking his head, Keith praised the gods that Lance also had Apple as he plugged in Lance’s phone with a spare charger and went to his one room in the small apartment and passed out still hoping that Lance wouldn’t kill him in the morning.

 

* * *

 

There were definitely weirder ways that Lance had woken up but waking up because his nose was wet was definitely a new one. Opening his eyes, he sees nothing more than two curious blue eyes starting at him. They both blink, unsure exactly what is happening.

 

_Thwap._

 

A small paw smacks Lance across the nose and he bolts upright. Taking in his surroundings, he gets the feeling that today is going to be especially weird.

 

Not only does he not recognize where he is, he doesn’t really remember much of how he got here. The cat is a pleasant surprise though. Picking her up, Lance sighs to himself and quietly says “I’m gunna name you Blue.”

 

“She my kitten, shouldn’t I name her?”

 

A sleepy voice comes the kitchen as Keith walks into the living area with two mugs of coffee. His hair is messily ties half up, and his oversized T-shirt is slightly tucked into his plaid pajamas.

 

Taking one of the offered mugs, Lance downs a decent half of the mug in one go. Grimacing as it slightly scalds his tongue, he continues to grimace at how disgusting feels having slept in his clothes - more or less.

 

Lance quietly praises his past self for having the self respect to have left on a cereal run in pj pants. Finally noticed the concerned state leveled at him, Lance realizes he just crashed at his project partner’s apartment. As in, his _rivals_ apartment.

 

“If you want more, you are gunna have to get it yourself.”

 

Keith sat down at the small kitchen table, pulling the box of cereal towards himself and begins eating mini wheats directly from the box as Lance stares.

 

“What?” Keith mumbles through a mouthful.

 

“Are you eating those without milk? Like plain? Nada?”

 

Keith merely shrugs. “Lactose intolerant.”

 

Lance doesn’t reply, rather he gets up and refills his cup and sits across for Keith. Grabbing a handful when Keith offers, Lance sits and munches the bitter and overly sweet cereal.

 

The sound of Shakira erupts from the living room and Lance merely folds onto the table, a rather impressive sound of despair emanating from him.

 

“Fuck I’ve got class in 20 minutes.”

 

The sound of a chair scraping over linoleum prompts Lance to look up. Keith finishes off his coffee, and disappears into his room.

 

He emerges shortly, changed into ripped black jeans and the same hoodie from before.

 

“If you are good to go to class as is, I can get you there in ten minutes.”

 

Lance stares at Keith for a solid second before bursting into action, swiping his phone from next to the couch and dragging on his shoes which had somehow ended up by the door.

 

Keith tucks Blue into his hoodie pocket and grabs his keys, locking the door behind them both.

 

Lance can’t help but appreciate the true beauty of Keith’s car in the daylight. It’s deep red seems to draw in and warm the shadows, the black detailing adding a subtle ferocity to the car.

 

As soon as Lance’s door is closed, Keith pulls out of the lot, his car purring in the mid afternoon shade. He keeps to the limit as Lance quickly taps out a message, probably to a friend in the class, until Lance remembers to quickly slap his buckle in place.

 

The purr rumbles into a heavy roar as Keith quickly picks up speed, slowing only once they get to the parking lot subtly slipping into the tricky spot in the lot. It was almost always open because unless you hit it just right, you would never be able to actually get into the spot.

 

Quickly exiting the car, Lance is surprised when Keith gets out with him until his brain catches up.

 

_Oh fuck_

 

The class Lance was going to be late for? He shares it with Keith. It’s the stupid class with the stupid project with stupidly assigned partners.

 

As they arrive in class, they both head to their assigned seats.

 

“So uh, what do you want to work on?” Lance asks quietly.

 

Keith shrugs.

 

“You don’t have any of your stuff, and I’ve just got my laptop so realistically we should probably decide what exactly we want to do for this.”

 

Half resting on the table, Lance actually feels more awake than he has in a while.

 

“Uh, what if we did something with mag-rails? Like frictionless transportation?”

 

Lance could see the surprise on Keith’s face at his idea. The sound of tapping fills the blank space in the conversation, until the laptop is spun to the side. A video plays in the corner, showing a model car modified with magnets hovering and flying over a mobius track.

 

Before either of them realize it, they’ve made crazy progress compared to the last three weeks of this class and they already need to head to their next class.

 

“Hey wait a sec,” Keith hurried to tap Lance on the shoulder before he heads off too far. “Do you want to keep working on this tonight? We’ve still got to finish that last chunk before the first deadline.”

 

“Only if I get to hold Blue,” Lance jokes, waving as he catches up to where Hunk is waiting with slight suspicion on his face.

 

The study session in the library goes better than either of them thought it would.

 

Lance doesn’t sleep again that night.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> if you want a boyfriend apparently you just need a cat in your hoodie

It’s been about two months since Keith made Lance crash on the couch instead of walking back to the dorms in a delirious state. Lance’s insomnia has come back in full swing since that night, and the stress he was currently under wasn’t helping. 

 

They both should’ve planned better. Instead they had to finish a full report in the two hours they had before it was due online at midnight. A few coffee mugs sat long since drained on the side table and they both were slouched against the couch staring at the computer.

 

Their report went through at 11:59 pm. It was the closest either of them had cut it in a  _ long  _ while. With a sigh of exhaustion, Keith levers himself up from the couch careful not to disturb Blue who was sleeping in his pocket again. 

 

“I can set up the bed for you, if you don’t mind crashing here again,” Keith calls from the kitchen as he piles the mugs by the sink. 

 

Lance merely snorts. “With  _ my  _ insomnia?” he asks incredulously. “Not gunna happen, I might as well save you the time.”

 

“Doesn’t lying down help though? My brother Shiro has insomnia pretty bad sometimes, and usually it helps him be less exhausted by it.” 

 

“Well, I mean... I  _ did  _ manage to sleep last time, don’t know why though.” Lance sinks a little into the couch, brow furrowing as his brain attempts to science why it slept. 

 

Keith kicks Lance off the couch to pull it out, meanwhile asking “what changed then? Wouldn’t that be a sleep trigger?” 

 

Lance merely shrugs. 

 

Keith heads into his room a sleepy goodnight later, half closing the door in case Blue needs to use her litter box in the bathroom. 

 

Lance simply lays on the bed, and stares at the ceiling. Sleep continues to hover infuriatingly until something soft and claw-y steals half of the pillow. 

 

Lance’s brain barely makes the connection between Blue and sleep as it shuts down. 

 

* * *

  
  


Lance and Keith high five as the final edits of the video load and save. Carefully submitted, the project from Hell is finally completed and somehow they didn’t end up killing each other. Between study parties for shared classes and working on the Hell Project they had, somehow, ended up becoming something. Hunk would call it friendship. Pidge would merely smirk as they are want to do. 

 

Shutting down the school issued laptop, Lance is nearly brained by a flying wii remote. 

 

“Hey!” Lance glares at Keith, who is holding back a snicker at the indignation on Lance’s face. Flopping on the couch with the remaining of the bowl of popcorn, Keith ties his hair up out of face while Lance pulls up the obligatory Mario Kart. 

 

The little half bun that Keith pulls his hair into looks, actually, quite cute according to Lance’s thoughts. If a flush crosses his face, Lance pretends not to notice and hope his darker complexion hides it. 

 

The smirk and challenge in Lance’s eye isn’t nearly as annoying as he originally thought, snides Keith’s thoughts and Keith is abruptly glad that they are in the middle of a race and Lance isn’t paying attention to him. 

 

An absurd amount of races later, with a near tie final race giving Lance the edge he needed to nudge Keith out of first overall, they realize it’s nearly 3 am. 

 

Keith goes to get more popcorn only to be attacked by a yawn followed closely by exhaustion. Lance snickers as he packs up the remotes, and clearing off the couch to set it up. At this point, he had stayed over enough times to have how it worked down. 

 

After he had figured out that Blue helped him sleep, he had shown up a few times just to hold off the hallucinations when his insomnia got especially bad. 

 

Given how many times this had happened, it was especially annoying the  _ third  _ time Lance woke up having only nabbed maybe a half hour of sleep because Blue had decided to wander back to Keith’s room. 

 

Trying not to wake Keith up, Lance sneaks through the door of his room with the plan to grab Blue from the pillow. He didn’t expect Keith to have noticed Blue had snuck back in and be trying to sneak Blue back out to Lance. 

 

“Uh-“

 

“Oh-“

 

With an exasperated sigh at the cat in his arms, Keith utters, quite simply, “fuck this.”

 

“Hey Lance,”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Do you want to just, sleep in my room? Clearly Blue is attached to it tonight for  _ some goddamned reason _ and we are both too tired to deal with her shit”

 

Blue’s wars flattened back towards Keith at this, almost as if she was quite offended by them being tired. 

 

“Uh, okay”

 

Lance grabs the pillow from the couch bed, dragging his feet in tiredness to Keith’s room and wow, this is awkward. 

 

_ How the fuck do girls do this casually?  _ Lance asks himself, stories from his insane number of siblings permeating his tired mind. 

 

Sliding beneath the covers, Lance notices Blue finally settles down in the space between him and Keith. 

 

Between one breath and the next, they are both asleep. 

 

* * *

 

Sunlight pokes at Lance, trying to sneak beneath his eyelids. Turning over, the first thing he notices is that he is face to face with Keith. 

 

A flush slowly creeps over both their faces, and Lance puts it off as the room being warm. Two bodies, one room - science. Right?

 

The second thing he notices turns that flush into a full on blush as he realizes Blue is nowhere in the room. Not under the covers, not on either pillow. Lance can see Keith coming to the same conclusion, curiosity beginning to etch across his face. 

 

“So... how did you sleep?” Keith asks, his voice weird in the previous silence of the room. 

 

“I, uh... I slept fine.” Lance is sure he looks just as confused as he feels but his brain is running faster than Lance is used to with the sound sleep. 

 

Hunk’s suspicious glances, Pidge’s not so subtle smirks and comments, Veronica’s rolled eyes in their video chats. 

 

It all adds together and  _ hey, Lance? You’re an idiot.  _

 

At least Lance can say his thoughts don’t beat around the bush. Pausing to take notice of Keith, Lance sees him closing in on himself having moved as far from Lance as he can while still staying under the covers and avoiding the chill air of the room. 

 

“Hey, Keith?”

 

“Yeah?” Comes the muffled reply. 

 

“You are-“ a heavy yawn interrupts Lance, “- really cute with bed head.”

 

Lance expects a cold reply, maybe a glare but definitely not Keith sitting up to say, “you’re just plain cute.” 

 

Lance suddenly finds himself sitting upright staring at Keith, shock plainly written across his face. 

 

Then Keith is leaning closer, and Lance finds his eyes are closing as his hands find the softness of Keith’s long hair. 

 

If he could only choose one kiss to remember forever, Keith thinks he would chose this one. Slipped into the quiet of the morning, the soft light grafting the shadows with a softness. Not perfect by any means, but so simple, so quiet there wasn’t a more perfect moment. 

 

Neither boy noticed Blue softly leap down from her hiding spot on the bookshelf or the self satisfied sass in her twitching tail. They are too absorbed with their flowering feelings to watch for her as Blue walks up and kneads them both in the thigh as she yowls for breakfast. 


End file.
